Music News Blog

Two weeks after he was acquitted of child molestation charges, Michael Jackson made his first public statement, via his web site, thanking his fans for their loyalty and support throughout his trial. "Without God, my children, my family and you, my fans," he wrote, "I could not have made it through. Your love, support and loyalty made it all possible" This is the first the public has heard from the 46-year-old Jackson since he was cleared of all charges against him two weeks ago. Throughout the four-month-long trial, fans showed their support for Jackson by rallying outside the Santa Maria, California courthouse. "You were there when I really needed you," Jackson wrote. "I will never forget you. Your ever-present love held me, dried my tears, and carried me through. I will treasure your devotion and support forever. You are my inspiration."

After Frank Zappa's passing in 1993, many fans figured they'd never hear any of the iconic rocker's selections performed live on stage again. But Zappa's two sons, singer Ahmet and guitarist Dweezil, are assembling what they call "the first official authorized presentation of Frank Zappa music by the Zappa Estate."

"One of the key motivating factors in terms of the timing right now is that in the world -- especially in the United States politically and musically -- there just needs to be a different perspective," Dweezil tells Billboard.com. "And Frank always provided in the past such a great alternate perspective of all of those things. And it would be great for a newer, younger audience to be exposed to Frank's music."

LOS ANGELES, CA Thursday Jun.23.2005 /netmusiccountdown.com/ -- The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson will get "chopped and screwed" this Friday, June 24, when Mike Jones stops by.

The Houston MC is scheduled to perform a song off his new album "Who Is Mike Jones." Other guests on tomorrow's show include actor Jeremy Piven and author Melissa Bank.

Alexander goes 'The Long Way' on her pickup truck.

NASHVILLE, TN Wednesday Jun.22.2005 /netmusiccountdown.com/ -- In the June issue of Harp Magazine (on stands now), musical storyteller Jessi Alexander explains how the 1980 GMC Sierra Classic pickup she inherited from her late grandfather inspired the first line for the vivacious tune "The Long Way" from her debut album "Honeysuckle Sweet."

"That's me on the pickup truck waiting for some old boy to pick me up. He wants to change my zip code and change my luck with warm beer and stale cigarettes."

"[It] came to me when I was thinking about being 16 on the back of that truck." Alexander says the best thing about the car is the smell of old leather, cigarettes, and beer adding that "it doesn't have air conditioning, so the console has been baked by the Tennessee sun for over 20 years."

Juvenile, T.I. & P$C, Trillville and Mike Jones have recorded new songs for the "Hustle and Flow" soundtrack. The album is due July 12 via Atlantic, a day before the U.S. theatrical debut of the film, which stars Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning and Ludacris.

Produced by John Singleton ("Boyz in Da Hood," "Shaft") and written and directed by Craig Brewer, the film chronicles the trials and tribulations of a Memphis pimp named DJay as he attempts to realize his dreams of becoming a rapper. Al Kapone, the local Memphis MC who penned DJay's raps for the film, contributes one of his own performances to the soundtrack. Howard also raps twice in character as DJay.

MILWAUKEE — It being Sunday and all, My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way figured he'd throw in a few benedictions between amped-up hits by his New Jersey punk band. But church never sounded, or looked, quite like this. "Let me hear you say hell yeah, Milwaukee!" Way shouted over and over during his band's twilight set, which closed the show on the second night of this summer's Vans Warped Tour.

"Let me hear you say f--- yeah!" he said in a preacher's cadence, stretching out his healing hands as he strode across the stage wearing a very un-priestly vestment of black bondage pants, a black jacket and a black T-shirt with a photo of Bela Lugosi on it. At the very least, most sermons don't contain quite so many four-letter words starting with "f," or pleas to spit in the face of rock stars that ask female fans to lift their shirts.

But those kinds of contradictions are what Warped is all about. One minute you're watching a bunch of lunatics in loin cloths and combat boots calling themselves Bad Fathers play spazz-out punk rap tunes and just a few yards away you catch Phoenix's Greeley Estates shredding their throats during one of the most intense emo sets of the day. Along the way you might wander by MxPx and No Use for a Name playing some classic pop punk, Bedouin Soundclash mixing in a bit of ska and dub and Valient Thorr playing, well, it's hard to say. But it was something kind of scary along the lines of the Black Crowes meet Motörhead in tight trousers, bushy beards and lots of talk about the planet Venus.

The great equalizer? It doesn't matter if you're a veteran act like the Offspring or a band called Dork, just about everyone gets 30 minutes to do their thing, and, more than any other tour out there, it's almost impossible to tell the bands from their fans in the audience.

"It's cool to see kids going from watching the Offspring to something new like Hawthorne Heights, right?" said tour founder Kevin Lyman backstage as the sun was setting and vendors began dismantling their tents. Taking off on his customized lowrider bicycle, which, along with mini motorcycles and longboard skateboards, was the preferred means of backstage locomotion, Lyman smiled as he surveyed another successful outing of his decade-old creation.

While there was plenty of the flavor of the day emo and screamo from the likes of Silverstein, Bleed the Dream and Hawthorne Heights, there was also the hard-to-categorize set from punk supergroup the Transplants. The band played a diabolical mix of rap, punk, dub and drum'n'bass that got the audience hyped. Bobbing his mowhawked head so furiously it looked like he was bashing a cymbal with it to double his already insane torrent of beats, Travis Barker led the band into the new song "Madness," with Tim Armstrong and Rob Aston switching off on gravely vocals on a classic from their first album, "Diamonds and Guns."

For the second consecutive year Vernon Neilly and his guitar compilation “G-Fire” series project, has captured another “Smoothie” smooth jazz award. “G-Fire II” is the current project playing globally that has captured the hearts of smooth jazz, and jazz fans internationally. Vernon Neilly a world class guitarist himself, first on “G-Fire”, and again on “G-Fire II”, has assembled some of the top touring and recording guitarist in the world, and the formula has proven to be highly successful for his Boosweet Records label which is distributed by Synergy Distribution. The current lineup features renown jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield who became popular in the jazz world with his Warner Bros, and Verve Records recordings, he is also the protйgй of legendary guitarist George Benson, next Kevin Chokan the musical director of the legendary icon Diana Ross, but who has also recorded and toured with jazz luminaries George Duke, and George Howard. Next is the hot Brazilian guitar wiz Miguel Mega who brings a little edge to the project, and finally the founder of the “G-Fire” series Vernon Neilly, who has worked with legends Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Cuba Gooding Sr., Billy Paul, Teena Marie, George Clinton, just to name a few, and can be seen on the big screen in the feature films “Along Came Polly”, and “Starsky and Hutch”. With this combination Neilly has put together a very musically diverse project that flows effortlessly from start to finish, something very rare in today’s music world, and in the genre where things tend to sound very homogenized. “G-Fire II” has received rave reviews from all corners of the globe from magazines, e-zines, radio programmers, and independent journalist alike. “G-Fire” and “G-Fire II” are available at all Tower Record store locations nation wide in the US, and at all major online retailers globally. Both CD’s are also available for download at the top download sites such as I-tunes, Rhapsody, E-Music, MSN.com, and many more.

DAVE Haslam celebrated the launch of his latest book, Not Abba: The Real Story Of The 1970s, by spinning his own favourite tracks from the decade.

The former Hacienda DJ has written a gritty cultural history of the 70s, which goes beyond the fluffy mainstream image of glam rock and platform shoes.

It took him three years to research and to celebrate it hitting the shelves, Dave partied with pals including Tracey Thorn, from Everything But The Girl, and The Beautiful South's Paul Heaton, at city centre bar Pure Space.

Heaton, who moved to Didsbury from his home in Hull a couple of years ago, is currently on a sell-out tour of outdoor forest gigs which saw him play Cheshire's Dalamere Forest on Saturday, with remaining dates at Sherwood Forest, Nottingham and Dalby Forest in West Yorkshire later this month.

KAISER CHIEFS have announced details of their fifth American tour.

The Leeds band will follow their appearance at Bob Geldof’s Live 8 charity event in Philadelphia on July 2, with a handful of new shows supported by The Cribs, The Redwalls and Brendan Benson.

The announcement comes as the Kaisers head back to the UK from Los Angeles, where they have just wrapped up their fourth and biggest US trek.

The jaunt saw the band perform to sold out audiences numbering in the thousands as well as appearing on famed late night television programmes ’The Tonight Show’ and ’The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’.

Kaiser Chiefs will also head back in September to support the Foo Fighters, Weezer double bill, though dates are yet to be confirmed.

OASIS have announced their first Australian tour in three years.

The band, who are on the road in support of their current album ’Don’t Believe The Truth’, will go to Australia at the end of the year.

The Ghanaian Music Industry has over the years been filled with musicians from all walks of life, coming in with their debut albums.

One of these new artistes expected to be bringing a change and making it all new in the industry by the end of the year is 'Asase Ase' (Underground).

These new artistes, made up of different hip-life singers such as Teachers of The Law (TTL), Bandana, Ceasefire and Onyumtufuo, Shaolin Black Monk Funk are among these musicians, with Agyaba, Osansan, Bordamfuo, and Bigga as its front liners.

Speaking to The Chronicle, the producer of the album, Rodney Coudjoe, said the group was made up of hip-life artistes, most of whom are already in the industry and was targeting mainly the youth by way of fighting moral vices to help abolish vulgar lyrics among them.

'Who's Who' in Digital Media, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Will Cast their Ballots for Coveted Popkomm IMEA Awards on Location in Berlin September 14

Berlin / London / Los Angeles / Bangkok (May 3, 2005) -- Popkomm, one of Europe's largest and well-established music industry trade shows and conventions, today announced the selection of its esteemed jury panel for its 2nd Annual Popkomm Innovations in Music & Entertainment Awards (IMEA), to be held in Berlin on September 14, 2005, on the first day of the annual Popkomm show (September 14-16, 2005). The exclusive jury panel will include Jim Griffin, Cherry Lane Digital CEO; Rupert Perry, 30-year EMI Music veteran; Tim Renner, former Chairman & CEO of Universal Music Germany and MD of Motor Music; Emmanuel Legrand, Global Editor and London Bureau Chief for Billboard Magazine; Paul Hitchman, Co-Founder & Managing Director of PlayLouder; Ted Cohen, Senior Vice President, Digital Development and Distribution, EMI Music; Ralph Simon, Owner of the Mobilium Group and Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum; Andy Taylor, The Sanctuary Group Executive Chairman; Alison Wenham, Association of Independent Music Chairman & CEO and Kelli Richards, President of the All Access Group.

An American jazz landmark will host a new music celebration this weekend (June 17 - 19). The 2005 Rhythm and Ribs Jazz Festival will take place around 18th and Vine Streets in Kansas City, Missouri, the same neighborhood that helped launch the careers of legendary musicians like Count Basie and Charlie Parker. The festival is another sign that a city that helped shape American jazz is now busy reclaiming its heritage.

The spirit of jazz greats like Count Basie's "Kansas City Seven" helped inspire the Rhythm and Ribs festival, where the music that made the city famous will be served up alongside its legendary barbecued ribs. Rick Hughes, President and CEO of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association, helped organize the event, together with the American Jazz Museum and other local groups. "This weekend is a real culmination for jazz in the community, the rich history we enjoy," Mr. Hughes says. "We found ourselves without really a viable festival. So this is jazz and cross over--blues and gospel all mixed in there to have it really drilled down to a wonderful jazz and blues festival."

Kelly Osbourne has checked herself back into rehab. American magazine “Us Weekly” rported that Kelly, 20, was back in California’s Las Encinas hospital. “She’s going to be in for a couple of weeks,” a source told the magazine. “She’s slipped into some of her old problems and is not doing so well. Everyone is supporting her.” In April 2004, Kelly spent time at Promises, a treatment centre in Malibu for addiction to prescription painkillers.

She showed off her love of performing with her magnificent, high energy performance at last Saturday's (June 11) coliseum show at the CMA Festival.

After being away for over two years Jo Dee Messina has come completely back to the top thanks to a new hit and album, and she says she's enjoying every bit of it of her renewed success.

Says Jo Dee, "Anything that's happened since then, I am just so grateful and enjoying every minute of it. I'm just thrilled to death and enjoying the ride that I'm having and this time I'm enjoying it."

SheDaisy getting ready to record new album.
Says Kassidy, "We're getting ready to go into the studio. We've been doing a lot of pre-production work and Kristyn's writing and we'll be in the studio at the end of this month - sooner than I thought. So we're just preparing for
that. It's always a process, but exciting. Very exciting."

Professor El-Anatsui is back in Nigeria after featuring in one of the greatest and most widely publicized exhibition of contemporary African art ever staged in Europe.

The Ghanaian born artist and academician who has lived most of his adult life in Nigeria is one of West Africa’s most renowned sculptors . Anatsui, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka ,was one of the artists who represented Nigeria at the Afrika remix exhibition ,a wonderful collection of contemporary African art which is currently on show at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. The exhibition which was tagged "Africa Remix" is arguably the most comprehensive display of African talents in the world of modern art.

Slated to run in 4 parts, the exhibition kicked off last year at the Musuem Const Palace in the ancient German city of Dusseldorf . Featuring works of art from about 80 artists of African descent ,the Africa remix exhibition later moved to the prestigious Hayward Gallery in London and is currently showing at the Pompidou centre in Paris, en route to the Grande finale which will be staged next year in Tokyo . The expressive forms of African art at the Afrika remix exhibition range from drawings, paintings, photographic prints, sculptures, installations and implementation of different media including modern video techniques. Artists from 25 countries across the continent, from Algeria to Zimbabwe, are represented, as well as African artists now living in Europe and North America.

Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller and Arlo Guthrie will perform at the 44th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival taking place Aug. 26-28 at the Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville, Pa. The festival will feature more than 50 acts, including the David Grisman Quintet, guitarist John Jorgenson and fiddler Darol Anger's Republic of Strings. The Philadelphia Folk Festival is one of the oldest events of its type in the U.S.

ALANIS MORISSETTE’s records have been pulled from the shelves by a Canadian music retailer in protest at an exclusivity agreement the singer has with coffee giants STARBUCKS.

The chain have been given exclusive rights by the singer to sell her new album in the US and Canada for the first six weeks of release.

HMV Canada in response have removed all of her records from their stores.

Humphrey Kadaner, HMV North America Chief Executive, said that the decision not to stock Morissette’s recordings was "consistent with the views of the majority of our customers".

HAVING earned himself an audience with the world’s greatest politicos and powerbrokers, it was time for Manchester to lend Bono an ear as U2 kicked off their British Vertigo Tour in the city of Manchester.

And the elder statesman of modern rock and roll chose the occasion to deliver a blistering sermon of song.

It was derived from such a lengthy career that U2 should by now be peddling power ballads from their back catalogue to an audience hungry only for greatest hits.

Instead, the evidence before our eyes and ears at a near sold-out City of Manchester Stadium confirmed that U2’s flame is still burning brightly.

By Jonathan Cohen
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Modern rock heavyweights Foo Fighters and Weezer are in talks to team for a fall tour, Foos leader Dave Grohl said on "The Howard Stern Show" Tuesday, the same day the band's double album "In Your Honor" hit stores.

The trek is expected to get underway in September, although sources say details may not be finalized until next week.

The Foo Fighters' only two scheduled North American shows will come Thursday (June 16) in Toronto and Saturday on the site of the former Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, N.M., where they will entertain 500 competition winners.

Beginning July 1 in St. Gallen, Switzerland, the band will hit the European festival circuit. It will also play July 29 at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival.

Weezer is in the midst of its own European tour. The group will begin a summer run July 2 in Las Vegas, as part of the city's 100th birthday celebration. The group's new Geffen album, "Make Believe," is currently No. 17 in its fourth week on The Billboard 200.

Jurors took an anonymous poll among themselves early in their deliberations on the charges against Michael Jackson, and it was apparent that most believed the pop star was innocent.

Juror Raymond Hultman said he and two others didn't initially share that opinion, but the majority eventually convinced the three that the evidence wasn't strong enough to convict Jackson on the charges they were deciding.

"That's not to say he's an innocent man," Hultman said late Monday in an interview with The Associated Press, standing on the front porch of his Santa Maria home. "He's just not guilty of the crimes he's been charged with."

He said the prosecution presented ample evidence that Jackson had a pattern of inappropriate behavior with boys, but not with the boy who had accused him.

Sought-after tickets for a London concert to raise the profile of poverty in Africa are being sold for inflated prices on the Internet before even being issued — and concert organizer Bob Geldof is not happy.

The musician urged a boycott of eBay, accusing the online auction site of "sick profiteering" for listing the Live 8 tickets.

More than 2 million people applied by text message for the 150,000 tickets to the July 2 concert in London's Hyde Park in what The Guinness Book of World Records said was the largest text-message lottery in history.

Tickets began appearing on eBay shortly after recipients began learning by text that they had been successful.

IAN BROWN is to play a massive UK tour at the end of the year which ends with a homecoming date at the MANCHESTER MEN ARENA, NME.COM can reveal.

The shows throughout November and December are in support of his forthcoming Greatest Hits compilation, which is released on August 22.

Singing like an angel and partying like a rock-chick has brought Charlotte Church wealth and tabloid exposure of jaw-dropping proportions, all by the age of 19. Freshly reinvented as a pop diva, she's keen to give her own side of the stories and she can talk for Wales - as Craig McLean discovers, all the way down the M4

It is early evening at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Charlotte Church has been here since 11am filming the video for Crazy Chick, her first pop single. She has been flicking her hips aggressively and miming furiously for countless takes now. She is panting and, when she offers a hearty handshake, apologises for being 'all sweaty and horrible'. Aren't her hips a bit sore?

'Are you kidding?' Mark Melton, her jovial, bespectacled manager, replies. 'Dancing eight hours a night, three times a week?' He is exaggerating for comic effect, but Church, being an average teenage girl who likes to go out clubbing, is well used to waggling her hips for extended periods.

For the next few takes Church wears tight, low-riding black trousers and a bolero jacket with nothing underneath. Between run-throughs a stylist scurries up to poke inside the jacket and rearrange her dignity. The tabloids, the 19-year-old singer will say, have been discussing her breasts since she was 14; she remembers the headline 'chest swell' with bemusement, although at the time 'it was a bit weird, like'. (Fast talking but mellifluously accented, Church ends many a sentence with a slangy Welsh 'like'.) Being voted Rear of the Year as she turned 16 was odd, too, not least because she got loads of stick from what she calls 'agony aunts', probably meaning newspaper columnists.

A musician long before she became an academic and then a world-famous diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took to the Kennedy Center concert stage Saturday to accompany a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease.

Rice's rare and unpublicized appearance at the piano marked a striking departure from her routine as America's No. 1 diplomat. A pianist from the age of 3 she played a half-dozen selections to accompany Charity Sunshine, a 21-year-old singer who was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension a little more than a year ago.

Four-year-old Weston High team takes New England title

Go ahead and read the next line twice if you need to. The Weston High School Dance Team is the number one varsity hip-hop team in New England. That's right. There are varsity hip-hop dance teams, which compete just as traditional sports teams do, and Weston holds the New England title.

It's an honor that says as much about the team's talent for ''crip walking" to tunes like ''Rock Ya Body" by Stagga Lee as it does about their gumption. And it's a signpost as well, marking just how mainstream this gritty music has become since it emerged on the streets of the Bronx in the 1970s.

Weston's hip-hop team, whose 10 members include honor students, a ballet dancer, and a violin player, now has its own trophy case in the literature and media wing of the school.

NEW YORK (AP) – Common’s sixth album is also his shortest, and perhaps his best.
“Be,” which hits stores Tuesday, checks in at a slender 11 tracks, reminiscent of short classic rap LPs like Nas’ “Illmatic,” Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid in Full,” and KRS-One’s “Criminal Minded.”
After disappointing his hardcore fans with his last effort, the exploratory “Electric Circus” in 2002, Common retreated back into the studio with longtime friend Kanye West and Detroit producer Jay Dee. The result was the critically acclaimed “Be,” which leans on Common’s raw lyrical artillery of clever rhymes and metaphors.
Now 33, the artist born Lonnie Rashid Lynn on Chicago’s South Side spoke to The Associated Press about love, life and redemption:
AP: The buzz on this album is that it’s going to save hip-hop. Do you think hip-hop needs to be born again?

WASHINGTON (Billboard) - Oscar Brown Jr. -- singer,composer, lyricist, playwright and black-culture activist --died May 29 in Chicago from complications from a bloodinfection. He was 78.

Brown burst out of Chicago and onto the national musicscene in 1960 as a vocalist with a jazz-tinged, theatricalapproach, presented in a supple, finger-popping style. Hequickly became one of the first artists of the civil rights erato open an unflinching window to the joy and pain of the blackexperience in America.

Though she hadn't performed there for 10 years, Sarah McLachlan made it clear — she did not forget her hometown of Halifax.

The Canadian Press reports the singer performed a two-hour, two-encore set there on Wednesday night. It was a long absence for McLachlan, who told her audiences that she hadn't been to Halifax to visit for about eight years and last performed there a decade ago.

She admittedly had no good reason for it, saying, "I don't book the tours, I just get on the bus." She said her record label wanted to build her career in the U.S. before sending her back to play in her sparsely populated hometown. And, "Life intervened," McLachlan said. "I had a kid, made records and went where they told me to go. It's a bad excuse, but I'm here now. It's been too long."

FRANZ FERDINAND have admitted their music contains secret messages embedded within their songs.

The band confessed that like on many rock records, they placed a hidden phrase within their debut album, and plan to do it again on the follow-up.

"On the last record, we had messages in the music," Alex Kapranos told MTV News. "There was that trend in the 70s and 80s of back-masking, where you'd put the most terrible satanic messages on songs, and we wanted to do the exact opposite, put the most positive thing we could think of as a backwards message. There's one on the first record, at the beginning of the second verse in 'Michael', and we're going to do that on this album, too."

THE sound of Crazy Frog constantly chirruping ‘a ding ding dididing' has infuriated some anonymous musos so much, they've 'killed off' the annoying amphibian in a new song.

The Kill The Frog track, by a group calling themselves Frog Must Die, has the rather grisly prospect of the Crazy Frog pleading in vain for his life before he meets his death.

The folks behind the track told ManchesterOnline: "It was bad enough when there was just the Crazy Frog ringtone. You’d be on the train, early morning, just drifting off to sleep when you’d be jarred out of your stupor by that damn noise coming out of the pocket of the idiot next to you.

When you see Matt Mays' sweat dripping onto the neck of his cigarette-burned '72 Gretsch guitar and his El Torpedo bandmates getting into a groove alongside him, you would never think that this rock band could get nervous or care about the size of the audience they're playing to. But Mays and his mates' graduation from playing clubs to arenas courtesy of touring with Blue Rodeo has translated into a brief period of adjustment for these East Coast rockers.

"It's been a whole different sort of trip this time playing arenas," Mays says. "It's a different vibe. Our last couple tours were so different because we were playing these small dingy bars and now we are playing these extravagant theatres and big arenas.

"The vibe so far has been really good," he continues. "It took us awhile. At first, we sort of held back a little bit as we didn't want to play too loud or too hard early on in the night because we go on about 7 p.m. and that didn't go over so well. So, we were like, 'Let's just do our thing.' We stepped it up and we were loud and just jammed as hard as we could and the place went nuts. That's what we have been doing every night... doing our El Torpedo thing, just digging in and giving 'er and not holding back."

Pretend it's 1994. Weezer's Blue Album is playing in college dorms across North America and all is good in the world. Your friend says, "How awesome would it be if the Pixies played with Weezer!" After gently reminding your friend that the Pixies broke up a year before, you'd say, "There's no way in hell that the Pixies would want Weezer as an opener!"

Fast forward to 2005. The Pixies have reunited and Weezer are still one of power pop's biggest bands. And now the two will join forces in Toronto to put on one strange, yet quite satisfying gig.

Both groups will return to Toronto on July 9 to play the Molson Amphitheatre. The bands are no strangers to the GTA, a reunited Pixies played Mississauga's Arrow Hall for two nights back in November and Rivers Cuomo and crew played the Kool Haus less than a month ago in support of their latest disc, Make Believe.

Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban are among the musicians taking part in the Live 8 concerts in a worldwide effort to eliminate African poverty. Irish rock musician Bob Geldof, who created Live Aid in 1985, will organize free concerts in London, Paris, Rome, Belfast and Philadelphia on July 2, a few days before the G8 Summit in Scotland. Geldof hopes the concerts will encourage the world leaders at the summit -- including President Bush -- to make the battle against African poverty a priority. Hill and McGraw will perform at Rome's Circus Maximus with Duran Duran and several noted European acts. Urban will play at Philadelphia's Museum of Art during a show featuring Will Smith, Bon Jovi, P Diddy, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, the Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, Rob Thomas, 50 Cent and others. The London show will feature Coldplay, Elton John, Madonna, Sting, U2, Mariah Carey and Paul McCartney.

BAD boy rapper Eminem is returning to Manchester as part of a four-date UK tour.

The controversial star is teaming up with 50 Cent to bring the Anger Management show to Lancashire County Cricket Ground at Old Trafford on September 14 and 15.

Eminem sparked uproar when he chose Manchester to stage his first British concert back in 2001.

The National Union of Students' Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Campaign staged a protest about his attitude towards homosexuals.

And security at 50 Cent's sell-out M.E.N. Arena gig in October 2003, resembled preparations for a major football match.

This year's concert forms part of the European leg of the Anger Management tour, which will also call at Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and Dublin.

Tickets go on sale from Friday (June 3). Eminem and 50 Cent are two of the world's biggest rap stars and have sold 72 million records worldwide between them.

01 Jun 2005 They've just inked a deal with Roadrunner and now they have a new album ready to roll

The band will release 'Ghost Reveries' at the end of the summer and plan to play a European headline tour in September. Check out more info at the band's site: www.opeth.com